PC Sales down 7.7%; US up 1%

[jpiniero]

See: http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3146617

Gartner blames it on higher prices due to the strong US$ as the main factor, since the biggest decline was in Europe (-17%). Windows 10 had no effect on the market.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Do those include Skylake-related figures? Or is it still too new? I find it hard to believe that Skylake would be responsible for a 1% uptick in PC sales in the USA, when availability has been so scarce.

 

[Burpo]

Isn't this section for CPU & overclocking?

 

[ComputerGuy2006]

More and more people go to mobile. My family used to say things like 'we will never get another desktop, a laptop is fine', now they say things like 'we will never get another laptop, phones and tablets are fine'.

So the average person has less need of a computer.

People like me want a good CPU/GPU to upgrade to, Intel is not releasing any legit options, and we are still probably at least 8 months away from a node shrink on the video cards... Right now the only two things in the industry that interest me has been displays (4k, 120hz, ULMB, VR sets, etc) and maybe SSDs...

All this money I desperately want to spend on computer gear yet I can't seem to find the value or the performance I want. The sad thing is without a good video card (or rather nvidia GPU) I cant even get ULMB, so I cannot even buy a monitor in the meantime.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Strong dollar and no new software worth buying for. Not a surprise.

If the software industry doesn't change, then we can kiss performance parts goodbye and say hello to gadget type devices.

As shady28 posted in another thread.

This essentially means all the money gets drained out of hardware R&D.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If the software industry doesn't change, then we can kiss performance parts goodbye and say hello to gadget type devices.
This essentially means all the money gets drained out of hardware R&D.

I guess, I don't quite see the correlation there.

Why does the software industry dictate that future computing devices will be for content-consumption only? Surely, there are plenty of software packages already and currently on the market for content-creation, which depend on "grunty" hardware platforms to run it.

 

[ShintaiDK]

I guess, I don't quite see the correlation there.

Why does the software industry dictate that future computing devices will be for content-consumption only? Surely, there are plenty of software packages already and currently on the market for content-creation, which depend on "grunty" hardware platforms to run it.

And those will use server parts. But mainstream parts will end as gadget types.

Without a killer software app for the average joe stagnation will hit. Same for GPUs. People hope like no tomorrow for VR success. But if that doesn't happen it ends the same way.

 

[paul878]

There are really no good reasons to upgrade or get a new computer these day. Intel is not offering any reasonable performance gain from one generation of CPU to the next. Microsoft is making the matter worst with Windows 8 and 10. These is just no WOW factor in the last few year fors anyone to get a new computer.

In other news, Nvidia graphics card sale is up 51% year-over-year.

 

[Blitzvogel]

And those will use server parts. But mainstream parts will end as gadget types.

Certain "server" parts would sort of fill the gaps left open by the end of "mainstream" business, but alas I believe more that things are moving into a natural equilibrium that the PC industry will need to weather. Obviously OEM desktop business has been hit the hardest, but there is still a high enough demand to keep those kind of components in production due to high value seen by businesses, gamers, DIY people, etc who know a tablet or laptop is unnecessary or incapable of many things. Either desktop components are going to increase in price, or similarly performing server products are going to come down in price to fill the gap, but still expect prices to increase some.

What I do like is the single sourcing of components for both desktop and mobile to help drive efficiency and cost. Obviously desktop-bound components can enjoy high clocks.

 

[ShintaiDK]

In other news, Nvidia graphics card sale is up 51% year-over-year.

GTX revenue only. And due to cannibalizing hard on AMDs GPU sales that collapsed. Discrete GPU sales drops with ~40% per year currently in volume.

 

[Lyfer]

The death of the pc.

New kids are growing up with xbones/ps4's who game on the 40-50" tv's who think of PC gaming as prehistoric. Mom's and grannies who can use there $100 tablet to do everything there desktop can do but much more conveniently.

And as people stated earlier, there is no "killer app". PC gaming evolved the industry for us.

 

[tential]

Strong dollar and no new software worth buying for. Not a surprise.

If the software industry doesn't change, then we can kiss performance parts goodbye and say hello to gadget type devices.

As shady28 posted in another thread.

This essentially means all the money gets drained out of hardware R&D.

If phones were fast enough to make that viable some day in the future, wouldn't that be ultra convenient?

 

[ShintaiDK]

If phones were fast enough to make that viable some day in the future, wouldn't that be ultra convenient?

Phones, tablets. Completely agree. Using MiniITX here for example, never miss a bigger chassis. More like seeing it as a huge step down. And I can see the same for people going the Phone/Tablet route for good. Why return? The practicality is immense.

 

[Fjodor2001]

Convenient perhaps, but boring.

I like tech to advance in performance and new applications as well. Seems like we're standing still on those aspects. Perhaps VR (Hololens/Morpheus/Oculus/...) can become cool in a couple of years, and that'll require more performance too.

 

[ShintaiDK]

If it lacks power, it will just be powered by the cloud.

 

[Fjodor2001]

Then why are people even buying desktops or laptops? All performance that is needed is for I/O and to present pre-rendered content on the screen.

The dreams of thin clients are old but have not materialized...

 

[ShintaiDK]

Yes, that is why PC sales are shrinking and cloud is growing.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Perhaps in 10 years, I'll be building my own server/render farm instead of a desktop the way things are going.

 

[Fjodor2001]

Yes, that is why PC sales are shrinking and cloud is growing.

Correlation does not imply causation.

And no, there are nearly 0% of the market using thin clients and relying solely on cloud. The reason they are not buying new desktops is that the new ones being offered to them are more or less identical to what they already have.

 

[MongGrel]

Isn't this section for CPU & overclocking?

Last that I saw.

People have been predicting death of the PC decades now, go figure.

Should really be in General Hardware I imagine.

*shrug*

 

[DrMrLordX]

PC sales seem to be doing okay in the States, so foo! I'll stick with my PCs thanks.

Sure makes Intel's decision to slant availability of Broadwell-C and Skylake towards the Eurozone and Asia markets look foolish! Ditto for AMD making Carrizo so damn hard to get Stateside! Marketing fail.

 

[ALIVE]

well if companies give to the people what they want and not what they think they want the sales would be different

people that buy tables or smart phones they would never bought a pc so saying because tablets sold that many pieces it cut pc sales is plain stupid.

if gamers go to consoles then we have to ask why it that??
maybe because the games there are better?
maybe because there are without problems?

a console is a closed system thus you know you buy a game you play it on computer its another story. not help the pc when you need a 3k machine to play the latest games. gamer is a gamer

so then we have the rest that use a pc the real people of the pc world. but them why to upgrade???? for 3% improvement thank you intel????

intel feeling so secure is doing silly mooves that will reflect in lower sales

that why while pc sales goes does nvidia sales goes up
every generation in nivdia there is a difference

 

[ShintaiDK]

intel feeling so secure is doing silly mooves that will reflect in lower sales

that why while pc sales goes does nvidia sales goes up
every generation in nivdia there is a difference

NVidia sells less volume, but at higher prices.

 

[ALIVE]

NVidia sells less volume, but at higher prices.

well the whole apu igpu is killing the dgpu sales in the lower and middle aspects.

 

[MongGrel]

well if companies give to the people what they want and not what they think they want the sales would be different

people that buy tables or smart phones they would never bought a pc so saying because tablets sold that many pieces it cut pc sales is plain stupid.

if gamers go to consoles then we have to ask why it that??
maybe because the games there are better?
maybe because there are without problems?

a console is a closed system thus you know you buy a game you play it on computer its another story. not help the pc when you need a 3k machine to play the latest games. gamer is a gamer

so then we have the rest that use a pc the real people of the pc world. but them why to upgrade???? for 3% improvement thank you intel????

intel feeling so secure is doing silly mooves that will reflect in lower sales

that why while pc sales goes does nvidia sales goes up
every generation in nivdia there is a difference

gamers have went to consoles many times in the past, saying PC are dead.

I haven't bought one myself in a very long, long time.

I still prefer a PC myself, for many reasons.